About Tanya C. Edwards
For almost fifteen years, I have been an educator. I hold degrees from Ithaca College and New York University. A few years after graduating from college, I started as a substitute teacher with the New York City Board of Education. I found that every day was different and sometimes quite an adventure in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Finally, I got a permanent position at C.S. 146 in the South Bronx and was hired as an English Language Arts Teacher and Librarian. For almost four years, I worked tirelessly and passionately. I taught, reorganized and revamped a run-down library, while renewing my students’ love for books and reading.
During my elementary teaching experience in New York, I taught Math, Reading, Writing, English Language Arts, Science, and Social-Studies to grades kindergarten through six. I consistently worked to achieve excellent student results and I always maintained structured lesson plans that met the state standards. Because each student had a certain mix of traits, strengths, and learning challenges, I had to apply differing proportions of the curriculum to the children. In addition, to provide my students a greater understanding of the curriculum and to make their time with me more interesting, I sometimes incorporated and combined visuals, art, music, and drama to the lessons.
Two years after arriving in California from New York, I started tutoring children. I had no desire to return to the classroom, but I missed working with little people. Additionally, I also felt I would make more of a difference in the lives of children working with them one on one. As I started tutoring, I noticed that all my students had similar challenges. They wrote some of their letters and/or numbers backward, read below reading level and were unable to pronounce vowels and consonants correctly. One day, I met a fellow educator and began to share with her my concerns. She suggested that my students might have dyslexia and to google Susan Barton, an expert in the field of dyslexia. A new world opened.
For the last six years, I have researched and trained to work with individuals with dyslexia and other behavioral and learning disabilities. It has been a very rewarding and wonderful experience. There is nothing like seeing the sparkle in a child’s eye when he begins to read, and finally understands a concept or masters a skill. Teaching has always been more than just a source of employment, it is my passion. I want students to succeed and to reach their highest potential regardless of their diagnosis and/or circumstances.
